Robert Macauley

Robert J. Macauley (February 18, 1838 – March 17, 1904) was a Scottish American immigrant, lawyer, and Republican politician from Menomonie, Wisconsin. He served one term in the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing Dunn County during the 1883 term. He also served four years as district attorney and 12 years as county judge. In historical documents his name is sometimes spelled "McCauley".

Biography

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Macauley immigrated to the United States with his family in 1842. They initially settled on a farm in Hancock County, Illinois, where his father died five years later. Robert worked on the farm and obtained a basic education until 1852, when most of the family moved north to another farm near Menomonie, Wisconsin. He worked on the new family farm until 1864, when he began studying law in the office of Judge E. B. Bundy, who was married to Macauley's sister, Reubena Hadlock Macauley. But after six months of study, he enlisted for service with the Union Army in the American Civil War.

He was enrolled as a private in Company G, 16th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The 16th Wisconsin was organized under General William Tecumseh Sherman's Military Division of the Mississippi. Macauley arrived with the regiment just after the Atlanta campaign, and participated in Sherman's March to the Sea and the Carolinas campaign.

Electoral history